Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c7.t1.1

c7.t1.1

The stage upon which antecedent history as well as the most ancient history of Buddhism was enacted, is the Gangetic valley, the most Indian of Indian lands. In the times of which we have to speak, the Gangetic valley, almost alone in the whole peninsula, comprised within itself all centres of Aryan state-government and culture. The great natural divisions of this territory, which coincide with stages in the distribution of the Indian family-stock, and with stages in the extension of old-Indian culture, correspond also to stages in the course of development which this religious movement has taken.